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I recently was reminded through the movie Snowden of the critical need to cover your webcams. Most people leave their cameras open and running on their computers, laptops and phones. In today’s world, this gives the perfect opening for a hacker or person who does not have your best interests at heart to see and hear what is going on in your life. With the escalation of the cyber-war on the United States and abroad, it’s best to use every precaution that you can to protect yourself where easy and reasonable to do so.

Today, covering your webcam / phone cam is as important as locking your car door and your house. With the ability of virtually any nefarious person being able to find your cam and spy on you is easily done with hacker software today.

A recent article on a hacker forum in September 2016 had the following to say when the FBI DIRECTOR was asked about his cam.

“During a conference at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, when Comey was asked that he still put tape over his cameras at home, he replied:

“Heck yeah, heck yeah. And also, I get mocked for a lot of things, and I am much mocked for that, but I hope people lock their cars… lock your doors at night. I have an alarm system. If you have an alarm system you should use it, I use mine.”

Comey went on to explain that it was common practice at the FBI and other government offices to cover computers and laptops’ webcams with tape or any physical cover.

“It’s not crazy that the FBI Director cares about personal security as well,” he continued. “If you go into any government office, we all have our little camera things that sit on top of the screen, they all have a little lid that closes down on them, you do that, so people who do not have authority don’t look at you, I think that’s a good thing.”

Comey believes that putting a cover over webcams is one of the “sensible things” that everyone should be doing to “take responsibility for their own safety and security.”"

So, where do I get a cover?

It’s not hard to get a cover. They are available on Amazon for 10 dollars or often are sold in computer stores. The other option is a simple piece of tape. I would recommend Painters Tape if you want to use a base style of tape. This will block the camera and not leave a sticky residue when you need to remove it.

So why cover my phone camera?

Phones are the second easiest product to get into. They are roaming around in a hostile world where routers, wifi and other equipment can intercept the information. Many apps today open up the camera port without your knowledge or by fooling you into thinking it’s necessary when you install the application. this makes it easy for hackers and government NSA types to simply turn it on and off when they need a look.

In the ever changing landscape of a cyber-war, simple things such as a small piece of tape might protect you or just make it harder to become a victim.

The new rule for 2016 – Lock your doors, secure your electronics.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 6th, 2016 at 1:11 pm and is filed under Application Development.
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